Of Greasers and Gentleman
by DerbychickaLexzilla
Summary: "If I could have anybody in the world, it wouldn't be him, or Elvis Presley. It would be you." REWRITE OF CHAPTER TWO POSTED 11/28/17 M-later
1. A Gentleman

Chapter 1: A Gentleman

The trumpet solo of "Penny Lane" by The Beatles played over the loudspeakers inside of Rusty's as I swirled my red and white striped straw in my chocolate milkshake. The Beatles were my favorite. That Paul McCartney sure was dreamy, and safe as my mother would say. Not like Elvis Presley who dressed in tight jeans and leather jackets. Paul McCartney was a proper gentleman dressed in his suits and ties.

The giggling of my two best friends, Sherri "Cherry" Valence and Marcia Cooper brought me out of my own thoughts. They were having a heated conversation about West Side story for about the millionth time.

"Christine," Marcia asked me, turning from Cherry, "what do you think about Tony?"

"Huh?" I replied, shaking my head and finally focusing on the dark headed girl in front of me.

Marcia just giggled and pantomimed head in the clouds. I was always being called out by everyone who knew me for my endless daydreaming and for not being very practical.

"You haven't been listening to a word either of us has been saying, have you." The redhead phrased this as a fact and not a question, looking at me with humor in her eyes.

Marcia continued," well, just to catch you up, Cherry and I were talking about the probability of a relationship like Tony and Maria's happening and working out for the future. We both decided that he's dreamy, but that's about it. I mean, what kind of life could anybody have together when they are two completely different people from different social classes. Just imagine, it would be like a social and a greaser falling in love." Marcia laughed and rolled her eyes like this was the most absurd notion she had ever heard and Cherry followed suit, snorting into her ice cream soda.

I didn't really understand the class war that always seemed to be raging in our tiny town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I mean, I never would have been friends with a greaser or wanted to run into one in the daylight or in a dark alley, but still. People were people, or so I had always thought. Maybe I just read too much, lived too much in a dream world. If you really think about it though, there were bad greasers and bad socials. I never would have told any of this to either Cherry or Marcia, nonetheless any of the other socials that I hung out with.

Cherry had said something else to me, but I hadn't caught it and so she rolled her eyes and turned to Marcia and they started talking about the new guy that had just moved into our neighborhood from somewhere in the east coast. To anybody else, the eye roll from Cherry would have been negative, but for me it wasn't. Cherry knew best to leave me alone when I was in one of my head in the clouds moods.

"What's his name again?" I directed to either Cherry or Marcia, wanting to be a part of the conversation.

"Kenneth Johnson." Cherry said, looking at me, and then, turning to Marcia, "did you see the way he was looking at Christine today?" This sent them both into rounds of giggling and my face set on fire.

"He was not looking at me." I stared intently at the pockmarked metal surface of the table, swirling my straw faster.

"He was too." Marcia finished laughing and kicked me under the table. "He told Randy he thinks you're the swellest girl at school."

I groaned, "that word is so 1950s." But inside I was beaming. Kenneth Johnson was pretty beautiful. His hair was golden and his eyes were baby blue. He was tall, but not too much so. I couldn't say how tall though, for being such a short person, at just five foot one inches, I was the worst at gauging the height of other people. Everyone compared to me was just tall, taller, and tallest.

I imagined what it would be like to go steady with a boy like Kenneth Johnson. He would surely carry my books, open my doors, give me his jacket if I was cold. He'd be a real gentleman, Prince Charming from all of the fairytale stories. A girl could love a boy like that. A boy like Kenneth Johnson. And my parents would no doubt adore him. He would call them Mr. and Mrs., Sir and Ma'am and bring my mother flowers for the house.

I started to picture what life would be like with a boy like Kenneth Johnson. He would no doubt go to an Ivy League and get a respectable high-paying job. We could live in the suburbs together somewhere on the east coast. I had always liked the sound of the east coast. The surf, the sand, the salty sea air. The little beach towns that we could take our children on outings to on the weekends.

"You do like him? Don't you?" Cherry burst out laughing.

"I don't even know him, how could I like him?" I lied, blushing even more if that was even possible.

"You know," Marcia said with a sparkle in her eyes, " if you started going with Kenneth, you could double with Randy and I." The moment she said this, Cherry's laughter subsided and Marcia cut off talking. About two years ago, Cherry's boyfriend Bob had been killed by a greaser. I knew that Bob and Cherry used to double with Marcia and Randy. In fact, Randy being Bob's best friend had actually set Marcia and Randy up. Cherry still hadn't gotten over Bob's death, but who could blame the girl? Bob had been her first love, they had been going together since they were freshmen and now she was a senior.

" I'm real sorry, Cherry." The usually smiling and laughing girls expression had turned solemn.

"No, no. It's fine." Cherry wiped her eyes hurriedly and sat up straighter, forcing a smile. " I'm fine."

We left Rusty's soon after that, all of us piling into Cherry's red Stingray that she had been given for her sweet sixteen sophomore year. Nobody talked on the way back to Cherry's house. Once we go there, we all went up to her room and settled onto her bed to finish up our homework for the school week.

Cherry and Marcia were both working on their senior English papers, and they had both asked if I could edit them when they were finished. Although I was a junior, I was in a senior English class. In fact, that was how I'd first become friends with Cherry; she had asked for my help editing a paper when I was in her Junior English class last year. Although she was a year ahead of me, we had become fast friends, bonding over movies and The Beatles.

I was currently working on my math homework. Even though I was taking a senior math class, it was definitely my worst subject. At the moment I was working on trigonometric equations. Cherry and Marcia were no help either, as we were all completely and utterly confused by Trigonometry.

The hours flew by, and I left after editing both Cherry and Marcia's assignments. I had made barely any progress with my Trigonometry.

I walked next door to my house. All of the houses in my neighborhood were identical, white, picturesque, two stories, picket fences and little gardens in the front. The insides were identical too, besides the decorations. Those were more like fraternal twins than identical ones, since all of our mothers shopped at the same exact home decor and supply stores.

The mingled smells of cinnamon apples and fresh crust invaded my senses and I sighed in contentment. In my mind, apple was the only pie that even mattered.

"Christine!" My mother's singsong voice floated to me from the kitchen, "did you have fun with your friends? Come and talk to your mother!" I dropped my books by the bottom of the stairs and slipped off my Mary Janes, gliding into the kitchen to hug my mother. Her apron and hands were covered with flour. And she had some on her nose as well.

"We had fun. We went to Rusty's for milkshakes and then finished our homework for Monday."

"Oh, that sounds nice." Mother smiled at me and, wiping a hand on her apron, she patted my hair down, tucking a dark curly tendril behind my ear.

"What's the occasion?" I asked, nodding to the pie cooling on the counter.

"Well, I invited that new family, the Johnsons, over for dinner tonight. That reminds me, wash your hands so that you can help me with dinner. And then you'll need to get washed up. They'll be here in just a few hours and I want everything to be perfect. Have you met their son? I think his name is Kenneth. He's a senior at your school and very handsome."

I blushed again, thinking about my earlier conversation about him.

"Yes, I saw him today."

"And? He was quite handsome, right?"

I knew my mother wouldn't drop it unless I agreed, and it's not like I hadn't been thinking the same thing earlier.

"He is." I finally replied as I washed my hands in the sink and set to work with the salad while mother placed the casserole in the oven. We worked in a companionable silence, and once the salad was done, she sent me upstairs to freshen up.

"There's a new dress on your bed. I picked it up earlier today and would like you to wear it tonight!" She called after me. I ran back in the kitchen to kiss her cheek.

"I have enough dresses, but thank you, I bet it's wonderful!"

Mother laughed, "a girl can never have too many dresses or shoes. Especially one as lovely as you."She smiled at me, surveying me. "That hair though! You look like a wild Indian. I'll come up and fix it for you in just a bit."

I had inherited my curly brown hair from my father and it was my least favorite feature. I always wished I could have Marcia's straight hair, or at least Cherry's wavy hair. Anything would be better than the lion's mane that I had. It was always frizzy and unruly, no matter how much product or straightening was done to it.

I ran up the stairs and into my room, closing the door behind me. My eyes landed on the bed in the middle of my room and I gasped. On the bed lay a beautiful satin black dress with a gold bow around the middle. I quickly stripped out of my light blue school dress and freshened up before slipping into the new dress. It fit me perfectly, and made me feel a bit like Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's. I'd only seen the movie once before my mother decided it was inappropriate for a young lady, but I adored the character of Holly Golightly and the way that she did everything. In fact, I had named my cat cat after Holly's own cat in the movie.

I was going through my closet for shoes to pair with the dress when I heard my mother's light knock on the door. She let herself in and twisted my hair into an updo that made me look a lot less like a lion. When that was finished, I looked at myself in the mirror, seeing the same old Christine I always had. Mother frowned behind me, tapping her chin with her index finger, and then she left and returned a minute later with her makeup bag. She took out her mascara and put some on my eyelashes, following that up with a light pink lip tint. She admired her work and turned me to the mirror. I looked my own age, 16,for once.

Just then, the door downstairs could be heard opening and closing. I ran downstairs to greet daddy.

"Teeny!" He called out, as I ran into his arms. He embraced me and then pulled back.

"Who is this strange young lady that's taken over my ruffian daughter's body?"

I giggled, "oh daddy. Do you like my new dress?"

His brow knitted, "like? Well, I'll say. It is high time your mother and I locked you up and never let you leave the house. The boys would go crazy." As my mother walked down the stairs, my father let go of me.

"Well, I suppose some young man is going to steal your heart away from me one day, Teeny." He winked at me and kissed my mother's cheek.

"Irene, darling. You look wonderful. And the house smells wonderful. Is that apple pie?" He sniffed the air and pretended to follow his nose to the kitchen like a bloodhound, which sent both mother and I into bouts of hysteria.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

About thirty minutes later, as I was finishing up setting the table with our best china, the doorbell rang. My father opened it and my mother went over to greet who I assumed could only be Kenneth's parents. They were ushered in, and Kenneth followed behind a woman and man who looked exactly like him. All of them had light blonde hair that I envied and beautiful blue eyes. I had always hated my brown ones, and wished for blue the most. Blue eyes reminded me of the cool, bright colors of the salt water right on the beach, before it turned into a greenish blue. I thought the blue of the ocean was a lot more pleasing than the green.

The Johnsons introduced themselves, and Kenneth grabbed my hand, placing a feather light kiss on it. "It's so nice to see you again,Christine." His parents and mine exchanged smiles at this and I could feel a blush lighting up my face.

"And you as well." We all went to sit, mother refusing when I tried to help her in the kitchen, and Kenneth pulled my chair out for me.

"Thank you." Dinner was pleasant, my mother and Kenneth's talking about the sewing circle that she was sure to join, my father and Mr. Johnson exchanging work anecdotes. Kenneth and I kept exchanging glances from our places next to each other and he asked me polite questions about school, including that I should be so kind as to maybe show him around the new school. "We can help each other out, Christine. I'll even carry your books if you let me."

I was sad to see Kenneth go, but he had scrawled his number onto my hand with a pen he had asked for and even winked at me before he left with his parents. My mother looked at me expectantly, but I was quiet as I helped her clean up after dinner. When I got back to my room, I did a happy dance and giggled into my pillow. Maybe this year would be a little more exciting than I had expected. If only I had known…


	2. A Greaser

Chapter 2: A Greaser

When I woke up for school the next morning I was more excited than I could ever remember being, more so than any person should ever be for school. I hopped out of bed and threw open my closet to look through my dresses. The one I finally chose was a little fancier than I would usually wear to school, but I knew mother would understand. It was yellow with cap sleeves and flowered cutouts. I slipped into my brown Mary Janes over my lace ankle socks and brushed my hair, patting it down with water until it was a little less frizzy. And then I curled my eyelashes and brushed my eyebrows. Looking in the mirror, I decided I didn't look half bad before running down the stairs.

"Good morning, Daddy, Mother." I dropped a kiss on my surprised father's cheek and went to see if mother needed help.

"You're in a bright mood, Teeny. Might it have anything to do with the young man that was here yesterday?" My father quirked his brow.

"It might." I indulged them with my reply as I grabbed a plate of pancakes for daddy and one for me and poured him coffee and myself orange juice.

"Oh, he's such a nice young man, Christine." Mother grinned from ear to ear and finally took a seat with her own food.

"And you look beautiful, as always. But that hair! Let me fix it for you before you go-" HONK, Cherry's horn sounded outside and I leapt out of my chair, too excited to be self-conscious about my hair.

"I have to go! Don't want to be late!" I kissed both of their cheeks this time and swooped to grab my books and homework before rushing out the door to greet my best friends.

Marcia was already in the passenger's seat, so I climbed into the back.

"Christine, you look great." Marcia turned, smiling.

"Thanks," I grinned back.

"Randy told me Kenneth came over last night for dinner. How was that?" Marcia had completely turned in the front seat and was staring me down with a grin.

"News travels fast, I guess." I said, purposefully avoiding her questioning eyes by watching as the familiar scenery of Tulsa passed by. But I crumbled when Cherry turned in her seat at the stoplight.

"Okay, okay. It was wonderful! He was such a gentleman, he kissed my hand when he introduced himself to me, like some sort of prince! He pulled my chair out and said he would carry my books if I showed him around the school!" I was breathless as we pulled into the parking lot of Will Roger's High School.

"That's great Christine. He kissed your hand? I've never even heard of anyone doing that in real life!" Marcia squeezed my shoulder as we all exited Cherry's car, and the redhead smiled at me.

As we walked into the school, Randy and Kenneth joined us.

"Ladies." Kenneth tipped his pretend hat and I laughed behind my hand, like some love crazed school girl. Which I guess I kind of was.

"Let me take those." He motioned to the books in my arms, and I laughed again before letting him take them.

After we had dropped my first few things at my locker, Kenneth smiled down at me. "Now, where might I find room-" he squinted down at his class schedule-" 201?"

"Oh, that's my next class! It's English."

"Aren't you a Junior?"

"Yes," Marcia answered for me,"but she takes senior English and math. She's a smart one."

"Well then, I guess we'll get to spend a lot more time with each other then." Kenneth said, winking at me.

Xxxxxxxxx

The rest of the school day flew by in a blur of classes, lunch, and Kenneth. He had been showering me with attention and compliments all day and I hadn't been allowed to carry my own books most of the day. Trigonometry was my last class, and one I didn't have with Kenneth. I entered the class next to Ann Miller, a senior who did cheerleading with Cherry and Marcia. I had always wanted to do it too,but I just wasn't coordinated enough. I was a much better swimmer than dancer.

I groaned as I saw that Mr. Wilson was passing out graded assignments. As I settled into my chair, he came by and, shaking his head at me, put my assignment facedown on my desk. I flipped it over only to see a giant red F, circled and right next to it,a pair of eyes, under which it said, in underlined letters, "Come see me after class."I groaned again and put my head in my hands. Ann motioned to me to see if I was okay and I flashed her my grade. She reconciled me with a grimace and a flash of her own c-. It didn't help.

The class seemed to drag on and on and when the bell rang, I waved a solemn goodbye to Ann, who jokingly saluted me and wandered up to Mr. Wilson's desk.

"Ah, Miss Madden. Come, sit." He pulled a chair up beside his desk and I took it begrudgingly.

"What's going on? You're are one of four juniors in my class, I let you in because I had heard great things about you from your teacher Mr. Smith last year. So what's happening?"

"I know. And I do apologize, sir. It's just, trig isn't really my strong suit."

"You can say that again," he said, but not meanly. "Miss Madden, I don't want you to have to repeat this class next year, I want you to move on to calculus. However, with the kind of grades you've been getting this year.."

"I know, Mr. Wilson. I will try harder, I'll study more. If I could redo this assignment maybe…" I trailed off.

Mr. Wilson looked at me, tapping his fingers on the tabletop. "Alright Miss Madden. I'll make a deal with you."

"Really?! Oh, Mr. Wilson, that would be mighty generous of you! What's the deal?" My feet tapped with excitement and I made them stop.

"I'll let you redo the assignment, if you let me get a tutor for you, from this class. I already have one of your classmates in mind."

I hesitated, but I knew being tutored would be far better than failing the class.

"Alright." I said. "Who?"

"Ponyboy Curtis." Mr. Wilson replied.

Xxxxxxxxx

Ponyboy's POV

"Ponyboy Curtis." I heard Mr. Wilson's loud, booming voice before I saw him. He was taking long, striding steps across the school field to catch up with Curly and I.

"Shit." I said, quickly pocketing the switchblade I had gotten out to pretend stabbing Curly in the stomach with. I also stomped on my cigarette and snatched Curly's despite his protests. He had already been suspended twice this year just for smoking on school property. I was surprised I'd never been caught.

"Anything wrong, sir?" I asked respectfully enough, elbowing Curly when he snickered at me. The other greasers were always picking on me for calling older folks sir and ma'am. I may have been a no good grease, but I would at least be a no good grease with manners.

"No, nothing at all. I was kind of wondering if you could do me a favor."

By this time, Curly and his small attention span had checked out and he was staring across the field, probably looking for some girl to chase after. My attention was perked, however. I had never been asked for a favor by Mr. Wilson.

"Yeah, uhh, what's the favor, sir?"

"Well, if you have some time after school, I was thinking if you could maybe tutor someone for me." He saw my hesitant look and added on, "you know, I could go ahead and write up a college recommendation for you, you know, when the time comes for you to apply."

I weighed this idea in my mind.

"It would only be about an hour every day after school for just a few weeks. She's a smart student, just needs a little help. And you are my best student. So, what'd you say?"

With only an hour, I would still have enough time to complete all my homework and fool around after school before going home.

"And you'll write that recommendation for me?"

"I promise. Any college would be lucky to have you." Mr. Wilson replied.

I already knew what Darry would say if I passed up a chance to up my chances for a good college education.

"Alright. When do I start?" Mr. Wilson smiled gratefully and checked his watch.

"Tomorrow, around this time. I told her to meet you in the library." And with that Mr. Wilson said his goodbyes and headed back to the school.

I turned around to find Curly out in the parking lot chatting up some girl in a skirt that was way too short and a ridiculous amount of face makeup. As I approached Curly, I noticed too late that his sister, Angela was making her way to us. She was pretty,

sure. In fact, she was more than pretty, but in a sly, catlike way that kind of freaked me out.

"Hey, Pony." She purred and her clawlike hand came down to rest on my shoulder. She squeezed it, and I tried to pull away, but hid my disgust when I saw how closely Curly was watching me.

"Wow, have you been working out, Pony? You have such strong shoulders." She fluttered her eyelashes at me and I gulped.

"Umm yeah, I uhh.. I've been working down on the railroad tracks."

Angela's eyes glinted and she sauntered closer to me, almost pressing the length of her body against my side. "I guess you're more of a Ponyman than a Ponyboy now, huh?"

I turned to Curly and glared at him, but he looked like he was about to bust a rib. "Alright Ang, leave me and Ponyman alone, alright? Geez go bother someone else."She pouted but left anyways, but not before brushing one of her breasts purposefully against my arm.

"If you fuck my sister, I'll kill you." Curly said and then laughed when he saw how red my face was.

"I thought she was going with Bryon." I said as we started walking toward Two-Bit's car where he was leaning, joking around with a set of greaser girls.

"Naw, she dumped him. Guy won't stop showing up at our house begging her to come back." Curly smirked as he lit up a second cigarette and passed me the light. I took it and handed it back after lighting mine.

"So what," Curly said, circling back to the part of the conversation I was hoping to avoid, "my sister not good enough for you to try to fuck her?"

I groaned, and was luckily saved from answering when Two-But threw his arm around me. "Horseboy! I haven't seen you all day. Let's get the hell out of here." He waved to the blonde girls as they left and we piled into his car.

"You're in a good mood." I said to Two-Bit. I wasn't usually this talkative, but I was hoping that Curly would drop his earlier topic if he got distracted.

"Yep I am." Two-Bit laughed, "Cathy and I are going out again."

Cathy was Two-Bit's on again-off again girlfriend who was blonde and had "the best tits" he had ever seen. She seemed like a nice enough girl with a good family. And she was a quieter sort of pretty than Angela who was all dark, sharp angles. He seemed happiest when they were together, and was becoming slightly less than pleasant to be around during the usual two month breaks in their relationship.

Not like I could complain much though, Darry always said I was moody, and he was probably right.

I had become increasingly closer to Two-Bit in the two years after Johnny and Dally had died. It had reminded us of how fragile life was and how much we mattered to each other, even if that didn't sound too tuff. I think Johnny would have thought it was tuff enough though. Even Steve and I were a little better off. Not even close to friends, but he kind of tolerated me now, especially since I was older and could handle myself better than I did at fourteen.

Darry was still on my back as usual, but I tried to remind myself that it was just because he cared. And when I gave up reminding myself of that, Soda made sure he did it for me. Even the situation with the social workers was a little better now that we all had jobs and since the events of two years ago had blown over.

When we got to my house, I could tell as soon as I walked in that Soda had been cooking again.

"What's it gonna be tonight?" I settled my books down on the couch and went into the kitchen to find Soda's specialty, blue spaghetti, boiling in the pot.

"Geez, why don't you try a different color for once." I was only joking, but Soda put some yellow food dye in anyways, and now we had snot spaghetti.

"Honey, I'm home!" Two-Bit joked and ran in, blowing kisses at Soda. "What's for dinner tonight? Ya know, I've had a long hard day."

"Sure." I laughed, "ya lazy good for nothin'." He playfully punched me in the stomach and, grabbing a beer from the fridge, wandered off to the living room.

"How was school Pone?" My brother questioned me.

"Good. I'm going to be tutoring someone in math about an hour after school for a few weeks. Mr. Wilson said he'd write me a college recommendation if I do."

"Sounds good Pony. Darry'll be real proud."

"Sure." I said, and Soda frowned but didn't have time to say anything before Steve came stomping in. I took the distraction as an opportunity to sneak off to my room where I was reading _How Green Was My Valley_ by Richard Llewellyn. It was a real interestin' book about a boy growing up in his Welsh mining family. The narrator, Huw Morgan was kinda like me;the only person in his family seemingly unhappy with the way things were.

I must have dozed off reading, because I was awoken by Soda jumping on my bed telling me to come eat before it was gone. When I made my way out to the kitchen, I found with relief that Curly had gone. Not like I didn't like the guy, he was probably my second closest friend now. I just didn't want to spend anymore time talking about his sister.

"So," Two-Bit said when I sat down. "Curly told us Angela has a little crush on you."

Great, so I hadn't avoided this after all.

"Said she calls you Ponyman." My brother Sodapop antagonized me and Two-Bit burst out laughing and spaghetti flew everywhere.

"Yeah, yeah." I mumbled into my bowl, which just made them laugh harder.

"I don't like that girl." Darry said, sticking his finger at me, "Ponyboy you listen. You better not get that girl pregnant, ya hear me?"

I looked up in shock and almost toppled out of my chair, "god Darry, we went from crush to pregnant! She likes me not the other way around.. and she'll get over it soon anyways."

"Na-ah" Soda waggled his finger at me, "you inherited our good looks. It won't go away Pony. You are straight out of luck. This family is just too attractive."

He looked so serious that I bust out laughing despite being pretty pissed off at the topic of conversation.

I carried my bowl to the sink, "well, I'll just have to flee the country then."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"Ponyboy Curtis. He's that Sodapop Curtis' little brother. That Soda sure is charming. And his brother isn't bad either." Marcia ruminated on the good looks of the Curtis family while we rode in Cherry's car.

"Sure, he hangs out with that Shepard boy, but he's polite enough. And smart, if he's tutoring you."

I zoned out Cherry's voice as I tried to think of what Ponyboy Curtis looked like. He was apparently in my grade, and he and his brother had quite the names.. but I could not recall a face. I just hoped he was polite enough, as Cherry said.

"Anyways," Marcia looked at me, "anything else happen with Kenneth? He was all over you today!"

"He said he'd call me today after school."

Marcia seemed to be content with that and turned to Cherry. "So, is it true? Did Richard Jensen really ask you out, Cherry?"

"He did. And I said yes." Cherry straightened in her seat and turned into our neighborhood.

I was surprised to hear that she said yes. I mean, Richard was a real nice guy who lived nearby and was one of the quieter, calmer social boys. But I hadn't seen Cherry even so much as look at a guy since Bob died. I decided it was a good thing.

"That's great, Cherry." I said, leaning forward to pat her on the back.

"Yeah. Richard is different. A better person than-" she paused, "then he was." I knew the he meant Bob. She had loved him, but Bob was a drunk, likely to get liquored up and make passes she wasn't ready for. Marcia had told me all of this, without Cherry knowing. She didn't like to talk about him.

Once we got to Cherry's, I told them I wanted to head home so I didn't miss Kenneth's call. I was really just kind of tired, and I wanted to read the book I had started a few days ago and hadn't had time for since. I walked the few steps to my front yard and opened the gate, walking up the front path.

Once inside, I slipped my shoes off and headed up the stairs. After I finished my homework, I had picked up _To Kill A Mockingbird_ by Harper Lee. I had barely gotten through two and a half pages before the phone in my room rang.

I rushed to it excitedly, "hello?"

"Hello, is the Christine?" Kenneth's voice answered back.

"Yes. It is. Hi."

"Christine, how would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow? I can drive you, right after school. We can go for ice cream."

I almost said yes, until I remembered that I had tutoring right after school. "Oh Kenneth, I would love to. Except I actually have something I have to do after school."

He was quiet for a moment, "alright, no problem. Another time. I'll still have money and a car."

After that we talked for a little bit longer, until I heard mother call me down for dinner.

"I have to go Kenneth. I'll see you tomorrow though?"

"See you tomorrow Christine."

Xxxxxxxxx

The next day rushed by in a blur until lunch, and after lunch it seemed to decide to take its sweet time. Kenneth walked with me and carried my books again and I saw Cherry talking to Richard Jensen in the hallway between my English and History classes. It made me smile to see Cherry looking so young and practically glowing. Trig seemed to drag on even longer than usual, and when it was finally over, Mr. Wilson reminded me that I had tutoring in the library.

I made my way over, surprisingly and disappointingly,not running into anyone I knew along the way. When I finally made it to the library, nobody was there yet so I just sat at one of the bigger tables and pulled out _To Kill A Mockingbird_ _._ I was so immersed in the book that I didn't notice anybody approaching until, a person I assumed to be Ponyboy Curtis pulled out the chair across from mine and sat down. I put my book down slowly and looked up at him. He had the typically greased back, in need of a haircut hair, and was wearing a flannel shirt over a wife beater with a well-worn brown leather jacket. He had a soft, almost babyish face and long lashes framed his dark green eyes. He was definitely not bad looking.

"Uh," he cleared his throat, "are you Christine?" He had a southern twang to his voice that most of the socials did not. I assumed this was because a lot of the socials were not originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, while all of the greasers were most definitely born and raised in the area.

"Yes. And you're Ponyboy?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's nice to meet you." I extended my hand across the table to shake and he looked really surprised, so blushing, I pulled my arm back across the table and tucked my hand into the folds of my dress.

"So, uh, what part of Trig do you need help with?" His voice broke through the slightly awkward, but luckily short, silence.

"Umm, all of it." I laughed nervously, blushing even more. " I'm pretty much lost when it comes to Trig. Or math in general. I don't know how I ever ended up in advanced math." I laughed again, cutting myself off before I could say anything else. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I had stopped rambling when I was nervous years ago, or so I thought.

"Okay." Ponyboy didn't seem to notice the rambling, he was already opening his book and motioned to the assignment tucked into my book. I shook my head, yes, that he could see it, and we both reached for it at the same time. His hand fell back and I tugged it out of the book.

"So, we"ll start with the Trigonometric equations today." He said, pulling out a blank notebook page and writing something on it. We ended up going step by step over all six of the trig equation questions on my test until I was able to reach the correct answer on all of them. Finally, I looked up and saw that about an hour and a half had passed. Ponyboy looked up too and slammed his book shut.

"I gotta go." He said and I nodded.

"Well, thank you. You explain it a lot better than I've ever heard it." I smiled at him and he finally let a little smile slip out.

"Yeah, uh I'll see you tomorrow." And with that he gathered his things up and essentially ran out of the library.

"Bye." I said after him.

I gathered my things up and made my way out of the library. It hadn't been as bad as I had dreaded. In fact, it had been good, albeit a little awkward. He really knew what he was doing and had been patient with me.

I made my way out to the parking lot and read my book while I waited for Cherry. It had only been a couple of minutes, when a green mustang I had seen around before pulled up next to me. I heard the sound of the door opening and saw the top of Kenneth's golden hair before the rest of him.

"Christine, hey. What are you doing here so late?" Kenneth kept walking until he was right in front of me.

"Oh, I have to be tutored for math. It's just about an hour a day after school for a little bit."

"Who's tutoring you? Ya know I'm in your same math class? I could help you."

"Are you good at it?" I asked.

"No." He said laughing, " I guess I couldn't help you."

I laughed too and Kenneth seemed to notice the books in my arms. He took them from me and offered me a ride home.

I slid into the passenger seat of his mustang and we had just taken off when he asked me again. It seemed like a nonchalant, unimportant question, "who's tutoring you?" So I answered.

"Ponyboy Curtis."

"He's one of the greaser's who was involved in that whole thing with Bob Sheldon two years ago."

"How'd you hear about that?" I turned to look at him.

"Randy told me. Ponyboy helped the kid that killed Bob." My blood ran cold. I thought back to the nice enough looking boy who had tutored me in the library today. It was hard to picture him participating in second degree manslaughter. If he was actually dangerous, he wouldn't be going to school. He'd be in juvenile detention or something. I told myself to be cautious of him from now on.

"I'm not trying to scare you or anything." Kenneth looked over at me, "I just thought you'd want to know what kind of person he is." We had just pulled up to my fence. Kenneth swiveled around to look at me, and went to hand me my books. Before I could grab them, he pulled back a little.

"Christine, promise me you'll let me know if he bothers you. I'm worried." This car ride did so not go the way I had wanted it to. I had expected that Kenneth would maybe ask me out again or something. I tried not to look too disappointed.

"I promise." I said and he handed my my books, smiling.

Xxxxxxxxxx

By the time I was in Trig, I had bitten my nails to stubs. I was anxious about tutoring. After what I had heard about Ponyboy and how he had been involved in what happened to Bob, I would have preferred to flee the country than go. I spent my last class devising possible reasons for why I couldn't go. I was sick, I had womanly problems… my grandmother died. But when the time came to finally go, I hadn't come up with anything good.

I took my time getting to the library; turning my lock so many times that two different people had walked up asking me if I needed help with it. I put my books in, shut it, and then pretended that I had accidentally put away a book I needed and opened it again. I stuck my head into the confined space of the locker, breathing deeply of the metallic scent mixed with the smell of books and ink.

Eventually, there were only so many times that I could reopen my locker, and so I trudged begrudgingly to the library. When I got there, I could see that Ponyboy was already there and was leaning over his textbooks writing something.

Now that I had heard about him from Kenneth, he looked different to me. He was pretty tall, not six feet, but close, and he could look pretty intimidating if he wanted to, I figured. I wondered what had been going through his head when he killed Bob. I wondered if he felt any remorse for it, and felt myself shiver.

When I pulled out the seat across from him, he barely even looked up.

"Okay. Do you have an assignment from trig to go over?" He asked, head still bent over what looked like his English assignment.

"Umm, yeah." I replied, tugging my trig homework out from its place, tucked into my textbook. Ponyboy reached for it and I flinched. He looked on, unaffected. I lay the assignment on the table and slid it across to him. The rest of the hour went by in the same stiff way. I found myself trying to focus on his words, but instead thought about all the different ways that he could probably kill me if he wanted to.

When I finally looked up and saw that an hour had past, I hurriedly slammed my textbook shut and gathered up my things. "I gotta go." I said and barely even glanced at him as I ran-walked out of the library and into the fresh air. I took deep breaths, feeling my heart racing a thousand miles a minute. I just hoped that Cherry showed up soon.

A few minutes later ,I had finally calmed my breathing and had just decided to pull out the book I was reading, _To Kill a Mockingbird,_ when Kenneth's mustang pulled up beside me. I had never been so relieved to see any one person in my whole life. He came around to the passenger side and held the door open for me.

"Thank you." I rushed in and slid onto the leather seat gratefully.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked me from where he stood at the passenger side door.

"I'm just so happy to see you." I rushed out and he gave me a straight, white-toothed grin.

"Did Curtis do something? Because, if he did, I'll teach him a lesson." Kenneth said jokingly, pretending to punch the air. I giggled.

"No, he just makes me nervous. Now that I know what happened…" I trailed off. "Thanks for telling me by the way." Kenneth had come around to the driver's side door.

"Of course. Christine, I was just worried about you. I don't want anything to happen to you." He said sweetly, and I could feel myself swooning. It's stupid to say, especially after only knowing him for barely a week, but I felt like I could truly fall in love with Kenneth Johnson and his beautiful, blue eyes.


End file.
